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« December 2006 |
Main
| February 2007 »
The warm month of December and overall lack of snow this winter have really helped the construction crews working on the new PC Fitness Center!
 
The photo at left is the overall view of the ongoing construction while the photo at right shows the top of the Fitness Center peeking out from behind Slavin Center, our "student union" building. As always, you can get the full story about the fitness center on our Athletics website (www.friars.com).
First of all, we have entered all of the Regular Decision applications into our system and have the approximate count (drum roll please…). The overall total number of applications in the office (including Early Action and Regular Decision), is over 9,725. As I’ve posted, just less than 3,200 of those applications arrived at Early Action, so that brings us to a little more than 6,500 applications that were submitted for the January 15 Regular Decision deadline. But wait, there’s more… we did, as you recall, defer almost 1,000 students from the EA pool into the Regular Decision process, meaning that the total count of applications that will be reviewed over the next two months is about 7,500. There you have it! Now, without any further ado, on to the second half of the mailbag…
What are the professors like at Providence? –Karen
Great question, Karen, because obviously the quality and influence of the faculty will have a major impact on your college success. At PC, the professors are committed to their teaching, while also continuing to pursue their own scholarship. Although they are doing things such as conducting research and writing books, their focus remains on teaching undergraduate students. You will find they are readily accessible, approachable, and very willing to help students succeed in their classrooms. Since we have a very small graduate population on campus, the professors are able to really direct their attention to their undergraduate students… and when a research opportunity does arise, guess who gets the chance to do it? Undergraduates! Many faculty members work with our undergraduate students (including freshmen, sometimes!) to conduct original research and present their findings.
All of our classes at PC are taught by faculty members (we have no graduate or teaching assistants) and it is nice to know that even your Freshman Writing Seminar (English 101) course will have a professor in front of the class. As I mentioned, they are very accessible, and all are required to keep at least 3-4 office hours per week when they will be available to their students. You’ll find, however, that most professors spend much more time than that in their office with their door open. Many will also give out their e-mail address, home phone number, even their Instant Messenger screen names, so if you have a last-minute question before an exam, you will always be able to reach them.
Personally, I developed some great relationships with a number of different professors during my time as an undergraduate at PC. I have been out to lunch and dinner with various professors and actually have a voicemail waiting for me right now from one of my former English professors (I need to go return that call!). All in all, the professors at PC are truly interested in the success of their students and without fail they go the extra mile to make sure that success happens!
To learn more about our faculty members, please visit our Teaching That Transforms web pages. On these pages, you will be able to meet faculty members from a number of different academic departments and see the different projects they are working on.
I applied and was not admitted Early Action, and I am feeling very disappointed. Any suggestions? –Anonymous
Unfortunately, many students are denied from PC and other institutions across the country each year, and they are obviously going to feel disappointment. I think the best thing to do at this point is to focus on your other schools of interest to identify a school that is really somewhere you both feel comfortable and can be successful at on all fronts: the right academic fit (which means an institution you can realistically see yourself being admitted to based on your academic performance in high school), the right community fit, the right size, location, etc… While no student ever wants to receive a denial letter from a college that they have applied to, the reason we do make deny decisions at Early Action is to avoid stringing a student along by deferring them EA and then sending the deny letter in late March. We hope that it gives these students the opportunity to pursue other options.
A student should never get “hung up� on any institution that does not admit them, and while I understand that it is difficult, it is very important to move on and look seriously at the other schools to which you have applied and find which of these schools are the true “right fit� for you. For the student who is denied admission from his or her “dream school,� the one remaining option at this point is to attend another institution freshman year and consider transferring to that “dream school� after a semester or the full year. You can find more information on PC’s transfer process by clicking here. Whatever school you end up attending, though, give it a chance… many students who go to college with the intention of transferring after the first year graduate from that institution four years later—successful and happy.
Do you ever search the “Facebook� and/or “MySpace� pages of applicants to PC?
-Logan
We do not. Admission decisions are based on what a student submits to us in his or her application along with the information that arrives from the high school, not what a student has posted on his or her website.
We do enjoy, however, seeing what people are saying about PC specifically and the college admission process in general, and so we do take note of what is being said on college websites and discussion boards such as “College Confidential.� We are also aware that there is a “Providence College Class of 2011� Facebook group out there. But we certainly are not searching any of these websites for our applicants or anything like that, and the only time any of our counselors would post anything on these sites would be to correct inaccurate information.
Would you say gays and lesbians are respected at Providence College?
PC is a welcoming community and my experience has been that no matter what a person’s background is, they will be respected on-campus. However, I must also add that since Providence College is a Catholic and Dominican institution, there is not a large population of students on campus who have chosen an alternative lifestyle. Obviously, when students are considering their college and university options, their personal comfort level with the environment on campus is critical to a successful match. All students must consider these issues very carefully.
One of the organizations we have on campus is S.H.E.P.A.R.D. (Stopping Homophobia, Eliminating Prejudices And Restoring Dignity), which seeks to educate the college community on issues of sexual orientation. This organization seeks to provide a supportive environment in which students can discuss issues of sexual orientation freely and openly. In keeping with the mission, ideals and values embedded in Providence College, S.H.E.P.A.R.D. is dedicated to fostering a campus environment that encourages the respect for the essential dignity, freedom and equality of every person regardless of sexual orientation. S.H.E.P.A.R.D. will assist all students to feel secure and included in the Providence College family.
What are the different housing options at PC? –David
Currently, we have nine traditional residence halls, five on-campus apartment complexes, and one suite-style residence hall (our newest housing facility). All freshmen (unless they are commuting from home) and the majority of sophomores will live in one of the traditional residence halls… meaning you will be sharing a common bathroom with your floor (ahhh … the joys of college life!!). Four of the traditional residence halls are all-male, four are all-female, and one is co-ed by wing. There are doubles, triples, quads, and a few single rooms available. When a student decides to enroll at PC, the Residence Life Office will send them a housing questionnaire and survey, and the student will be able to list his or her preferences—such as how many roommates they want to have and which buildings are their top choices to live in. The survey is also used to match students with roommates by asking about study and sleep habits and personality traits.
Juniors and seniors can choose to remain on-campus all four years in our suite-style building or one of the apartments or choose to live off-campus. Juniors or seniors who do not get the option of apartment or suite-style living through the lottery are offered a space back in the traditional residence halls; however, in most cases, they choose to move off campus. The majority of upperclassmen (95%) live either on-campus or within a half-mile radius.
I am the Editor-In-Chief of the newspaper at my high school and I was just wondering what the student newspaper is like at PC? –Erin
Glad to see you are interested in continuing your newspaper involvement in college! I also wrote for my high school newspaper and when I arrived for my freshman year at PC, I was amazed at the depth of The Cowl, PC’s student newspaper! They publish once a week and each issue usually consists of around 30 pages. (On a side note, at my high school, we published maybe four times per year and each issue was about four pages long. So, The Cowl prints more stories each week than my paper did in an entire year in high school.)
There are a lot of very dedicated students who are involved with The Cowl… and by dedicated, I mean they put the paper to bed (rather than themselves) each week in the very early hours of the morning. The Cowl is always looking for new writers, copy editors, and photographers, and is a great way to be involved on-campus. Whether you want to provide a commentary on national politics, take pictures of PC Athletics, write poems or short stories, or report on campus stories, The Cowl is a great way to do it! You can find the new issue of The Cowl every Friday morning across campus and online!
A little later than expected but, as promised, some questions I've received over the past week or two from all of you in the first edition of the blog mailbag. More questions are waiting in the wings, but I know all of you have been waiting since Monday (when this entry didn't appear!), so this is only Part 1. Keep checking back for more!
How and when will you be deciding who the recipients of the Honors Program spaces/merit scholarships will be once some of those who have been extended invites opt to decline?
This is a very good question and a popular one around this time of year! However, we do not offer additional merit/Liberal Arts Honors awards because we make considerably more offers than we actually have spaces for up front, expecting some of the students to decline the offer. There are about 125 spaces in the Liberal Arts Honors Program (and because merit is tied directly to LAH, about 125 merit scholarship awards) and this year we will make about 540 total offers (including both Early Action and Regular Decision), so there will not be any additional spaces available when students choose to decline the offer.
As I have mentioned before, any student who was accepted to PC Early Action but did not receive an invitation into the Honors Program will be reevaluated again during the Regular Decision scholarship/Honors Program review process.
How do you handle AP credit and college credit earned in HS?
You can find the full information regarding AP, IB, and college credit in the Providence College Undergraduate Catalog or by clicking here. Here's the short answer: Providence College does accept AP credit administered by the College Entrance Examination Board. Students who achieve a score of a 4 or a 5 on the AP exam will typically be awarded equivalent credit for coursework at PC.
For earned college credit, students who have successfully completed coursework at an accredited institution should submit an official college transcript to the Office of Admission by June 1st. Please note that credit for dual enrollment courses is ordinarily not awarded for courses required to meet high school graduation requirements. Also, courses must be taken on a college campus and taught by a full-time college instructor in order to be awarded credit here at PC. Final approval of dual enrollment courses will be made by the Office of the Dean of Undergraduate Studies.
I have applied to Providence College for fall 2007 entrance as a Regular Decision freshman. I know the notification date is April 1st, does this mean all letters go out then? Can an applicant be notified any earlier?
All students who have applied Regular Decision will receive their decision letters by April 1st , and right now we are aiming to mail the letters in mid-to-late March. All of our Regular Decision letters (no matter what the decision is and no matter when the application arrived in our office) will go out at the same time to be fair to all applicants.
Scott, how many applicants did you get for regular admission? Also, how many spots do you anticipate will be available?
More information on this front to come! We are continuing to enter all of the applications that arrived last week into our computer system and I will pass along more specific numbers as soon as we know more specific numbers!
First of all, thanks for writing this blog, it has really helped me throughout the admissions process. I've already been accepted to PC, but I was wondering if you could write a little about student life and why people decide to come to PC. Thanks for your insight!
A really open-ended question! I could write for a long time about this one, but I'll try not to go on forever! First of all, student life at PC is very, very, very active. We have an incredibly involved student body, there are always activities going on throughout the week and on the weekends, and the only way a student would ever be bored on campus is if they want to be bored!! I think that attracts a lot of students who were very involved with in clubs/events/sports/organizations in high school to PC. (Click here for the full list of clubs and organizations PC currently has to offer!)... Moving beyond just the vibrant and involved campus, we also have a very real sense of community here at PC, a lot of which comes from our Dominican heritage, I think-- having the presence of Dominican priests, brothers, and sisters on our campus really helps to shape the community. And it extends beyond just the Dominicans themselves to the faculty, staff, and alumni of Providence College!
One of the major parts of student life is living on campus (wherever a student decides to go to college) and I think residence life at PC is something that makes students really feel at home on campus. Freshmen and sophomores are required to live on campus (unless they are commuting from home) and the majority of juniors and seniors (95%) also live either on campus or within a half-mile radius of campus, so there is truly a sense of community. We are certainly not a "suitcase school" where students are coming to campus only for class and then going home at nights or on the weekends. With the majority of our student body living either on-campus or in the neighborhood, it creates a family-type atmosphere that most students want to be a part of as much as they can (so they don't want to leave campus to go home on the weekends, or over summer break, or at graduation!).
Student life at PC is also enhanced by the city of Providence, which is extremely student-friendly and provides another whole world of opportunities to enhance a student's education outside of the classroom--and also have fun! Downtown Providence is less than a 10-minute drive from campus, and can easily be accessed by riding the Rhode Island Public Transit Authority (RIPTA) buses. RIPTA buses stop right in the middle of our campus and PC students can ride to anywhere in the state of Rhode Island for free simply by showing their College ID Card. Once students arrive downtown, they will find numerous entertainment, shopping, cultural, performing arts, musical, and sporting event options at their fingertips. With five colleges and universities within the city of Providence itself and nine total in the state of Rhode Island, there are many college-age students to meet both on-and off-campus and many activities downtown geared toward college students.
So, why do people decide to attend PC? For a lot of different reasons, I'm sure! For me, personally, it was a combination of academics/Liberal Arts/the Honors Program; the Catholic community and opportunities to be involved; the location, with the city of Providence right in PC's backyard; the size- not too small (my high school graduating class had 49 students) but not too large (average class size of around 22, and less than that as students move into higher level courses within their majors); the Division I sports (even though I wasn't planning on playing, the atmosphere and school spirit that D-I Athletics create on a campus is really something special!); and finally, the sense of community that I experienced in person each time I visited the campus. As strange (or corny) as it sounds, there was something about PC (that "feeling," as they say) that I didn't feel on the other college campuses I visited. And it didn't even matter that the first three times I visited campus, it was pouring rain. Yes, all three times. But I still loved it (if you enjoy your time on any campus in the rain, imagine how great it will be when the sun is shining!!!). And I enrolled! And I still haven't left!
One last tip for those of you who have been accepted Early Action but haven't visited yet: come see campus! It really is the best way to know if a school is right for you and if you can see yourself at an institution for the next four years of your life! Thanks to all of you who did visit this past weekend for our Early Action Student Life Program-- hope that you enjoyed your time on campus and at the basketball game downtown!!
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, more questions and answers are still to come! Stay tuned!
...have you heard about that stomach bug/virus/flu (whatever you want to call it) that's been going around? From my first-hand experience with it, I'll tell you it's not very much fun. I am on the road to recovery, however, and I promise to get that mailbag blog up this week!!
The Regular Decision application postmark deadline has come and gone, and the admission staff is getting set to review thousands of applications over the next two months so that our decision letters can be released in late March. But we'll talk more about all of that later...
Today, I want to write a little bit about some of our other responsibilities in the Office of Admission, besides the often-talked-about reading applications and recruitment travel. One of the first things you should know is that, while we are spending a great deal of time and energy working with the high school seniors who have applied to PC this year, we also have thousands of inquiries from current high school juniors and sophomores that we don't want to neglect. In effect, we are working with three different levels of students (by levels I mean seniors, juniors, and sophomores) all of the time. One of the areas in which I am directly involved with these underclassmen is our Publications "task force."
I'm sure many of you have received the Providence College Prospectus (or "viewbook") in your mailboxes; or picked up a PC brochure (what we call a "road piece" in the office) at a college fair; or found the latest round of PC news and our SmartTips in your e-mail account inbox. All of these (and many, many more PC materials) are created by our hard-working (if I do say so myself) Publications team, and while much of the attention at this point of the year is on the seniors who have submitted applications, we want to make sure that you juniors (and sophomores) are receiving the information you need from us as you continue (or start) your college search.
If you are a junior or sophomore and have joined our electronic mailing list, every month you receive a "tip" about the college search process along with the latest in PC news (we like to keep you up-to-date with what's happening on campus!). Each month, our Publications team decides on a new college search tip, and then searches out four or five important campus stories of the month. We certainly do a great deal of writing and editing (it helps to have English majors on the Publications team!!!) and we hope that this information is helpful to all of the juniors and sophomores reading it, no matter what stage of the college search process they are in. (And how can I talk about all of this without offering everybody a chance to join the electronic mailing list [click here!]).
The other main electronic form of communication the Publications team is in charge of is the PC Admission Website. We spend a lot of time making sure that information is up-to-date and (hopefully) easy to find! What's new on the Admission pages? Well, you can always find the latest on-campus news by clicking on the "What's New" link on the left side of the main Admission page. We have also started a listing of college fairs that a PC admission counselor or alumni ambassador will be attending during the spring of 2007 (a great way for juniors and maybe even some very interested sophomores to get some early questions answered!). Oh, and I also heard something about an ongoing admission BLOG...??
So, there you have some of the web-based responsibilities of our admission counselors who are part of our Publications Team. Of course, we also are handling all of the print materials you receive from our office... but I'll make you wait until the next posting for those details!
Until next time, keep the questions coming for the BLOG MAILBAG and check back for the answers on Monday!!!
*Scott
I love questions! About Providence College in general, about the admission review process, about what it's like to be an admission counselor... Your questions keep this blog lively, fun, and exciting! So, I'd like to take this opportunity to encourage you to send me any questions you might have over the next week or so... THEN, on Monday January 22nd, I will be posting a very special "mailbag blog," consisting solely of your questions (and hopefully some worthwhile answers to them!!!). You may have seen mailbags used by other web writers and bloggers, and they really help the writer to stay in touch with what his readers want to talk about. Don't be shy... send your questions along and check back on the 22nd for the answers!!!
I know may of you are very interested in what admission counselors do day-to-day, and while I have talked (a lot) about how we review applications and a little bit about the time we spend "on the road" traveling, I haven't writtten much about all of the other things we do "behind-the-scenes" in the Office of Admission. From creating all of the viewbooks and publications you receive in the mail to programming numerous events on campus to conducting research on admission trends to working with the athletic teams to coordinating our alumni associates who travel for us as well, we spend a great deal of time doing things other than traveling and reading applications. And since the idea of this blog is to give you a first-hand look inside our office, we need to take a look at some of the other things the admission staff does... all of that and more to come next week!!
Have a great weekend! And don't forget to send along your questions and check back next Monday, January 22nd!
...puts some wear and tear on our cars in the Office of Admission! Like Senior Admission Counselor Danny Richer's 2001 Honda Civic, which didn't see much of 2007, making its last trip on New Year's Day. But don't worry, Long Islanders, Danny will still be in town for those spring college fairs... arriving in his brand new car!!!
We've been receiving a lot of questions about the Liberal Arts Honors Program and awarding of merit scholarships to students who were accepted Early Action. Again, students who have been invited into the Honors Program were sent letters on Friday, December 29 (so the letters are out there). It is important to note that students who were accepted to PC Early Action but not invited into the Honors Program will be reevaluated for the Honors Program during the Regular Decision review process. We are only able to offer a limited number of students spaces in the Honors Program and because we do not yet know the depth of the Regular Decision applicant pool, we cannot give all of these spaces to students who applied Early Action. If, in the context of the overall applicant pool (having seen the entire Regular Decision group), an Early Action student possesses the credentials to be admitted into the Honors Program, he or she will receive notice of that invitation with the Regular Decision applicants in late March. (That's a wordy paragraph... hope it makes sense!!!!)
By the way, for a complete breakdown of the criteria necessary to be admitted into the Honors Program, head into the archives and read my blog from December 19th! It provides a thorough explanation of how selection for our extremely competitive Honors Program takes place.
Hi everybody! Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice school break and are excited to begin the second half of the school year. Just to recap, Early Action decision letters have been out for a while now (they were released on December 23) and Liberal Arts Honors Program invitations were mailed out on December 29.
For the seniors who did not apply Early Action, our Regular Decision deadline is approaching quickly: Monday, January 15 (postmarked). We already have a number of Regular Decision applications in our office and are officially starting the reading process for those applications next week. (And it is still a long way off, but Regular Decision letters will be sent out in mid-March.)
And finally, on a side note... what a great week to be a PC Friars basketball fan! The PC Women pulled off a huge upset win Wednesday night, stunning previously-unbeaten #13 Louisville 106-94 in double overtime. Sophomore Catherine Bove led the way with a career-high 31 points including five 3-pointers as the Lady Friars improved to 11-4 on the year. And after finishing their non-conference schedule with a 107-69 win over Longwood on Tuesday, the men's basketball team followed it up with an upset of their own Thursday night, opening Big East play by beating #15 Marquette 74-59. Congrats on nice wins for both teams!!!
  
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